Game of Big Hats
by millsmaraq00
Summary: AU Drabble Series: In which the Great Houses are ninja clans, Naruto's Therapy Jutsu fails and the War of the Five Daimyo makes the whole world peace fad sound that much sillier. Not in chronological order.


**Chapter 1: **

Namikaze Minato has just gotten back from a mission with his Genin Team when the he hears the news: the Rebellion in the Seven Lands has won and the Mad Daimyo has been slain by one of his very own bodyguards, Kawashiro Shinichi.

The yellow-haired jounin has no idea what to make of that. On one hand, he has no love for the cruel and sadistic Daimyo of the Seven and he personally feels that Kawashiro Shinichi has done the Elemental Nations a favour by putting him down like the mad dog he was. On the other hand, the man swore a solemn vow to _protect_ his Daimyo…

Minato is well aware of the contradictions that exist in the ninja society and this, he thinks, is another one to add to the hidden pile of shame that comes with the life of a ninja. What should one do if the Daimyo one has sworn to protect viciously executes a clan head and his heir without trial and thrusts the entire country into civil war?

Did Kawashiro Shinichi think that killing his Daimyo was the right thing to do? Minato asks himself.

He met Kawashiro Shinichi and his sister Tori years ago during the Chuunin Exams in the Seven Lands. The Kawashiro twins – despite having no blood relation with him whatsoever (they checked the clan records) – looked almost exactly like Minato from the blonde hair to the slender build. The only difference was that their eyes were green instead of blue. The beginning of their relationship was rough at first since Minato suspected that the twins were the ones who poisoned the other Konoha teams to eliminate the competition and Tori's attempt to seduce him during the second test to lure his team into a trap was not exactly endearing either (Minato still finds that memory extremely disturbing. Tori looked like she could be his sister!).

However, when he and Shinichi found themselves as each other's final opponents in the third stage of the exam, they developed a certain _respect_ for each other. That battle was sincerely one of the toughest and also one of the most exhilarating ones that Minato has had.

"This is the first time I have met someone who can match me blade for blade, trick for trick and jutsu for jutsu." Shinichi confessed halfway through the battle.

Minato had to agree. "I have found a true equal today." He told him.

The young Konoha jounin has yet to encounter anyone else like Shinichi, which is why he will treasure every moment of that battle… except for that one time when Minato nearly got mauled by those lion summons. That he can afford to forget.

The fight ended with two newly minted Chuunin who had to spend the next week sharing a hospital room. They ended up discussing various sealing techniques and bonding over their mutual dislike for bitter medicine. Minato was having so much fun with his new friend that _Jiraiya-sensei_ had to drag him back to Konoha after he was discharged. The two of them still kept in contact, though, and they became pen pals, sending letters at least once a fortnight until war engulfed both their countries.

Minato has to admit that he does not really know Shinichi that well (he sometimes feels that his friend is hiding something about his relationships with his family in his letters) but he knows him well enough. Shinichi is arrogant, rude and callous at times but he can be nice if you manage to get him to like you and deep down, his fellow blond had always wanted to be a hero just like his idols who serve in the Daimyo of the Seven's Guard.

Minato hears that people are accusing Shinichi of killing the Mad Daimyo for the glory of himself and the Kawashiro clan but the Konoha jounin does not buy that. Despite all the craziness that has happened in the Seven Lands so far, Minato is sure that this act of heroism – or villainy, depending on one's point of view – was not for the grandeur (in fact, this act of 'treason' as most are calling it is more likely to earn him contempt than anything else). Shinichi is not the sort who would strive at all costs to achieve a name for himself and his clan. In fact, Minato feels that he himself is the more ambitious one since he actually wants to be Hokage but Shinichi cannot care less about such aims and is rather blasé about forsaking any chance of becoming clan head by joining the Guard.

So family loyalty and personal honour are surely not the motivations behind this brazen act. It also could not have been pure righteousness (the idea of a virtuous Shinichi is laughable) because then he would have intervened when the Daimyo brutally murdered the head of the Gushiken clan…

The best idea that Minato can think of is that the Mad Daimyo must have done _something_ to push Shinichi into killing him right then and there. The blond Hokage-to-be cannot imagine Shinichi clandestinely planning a betrayal for months on end… no, the assassination was likely to be more on the spontaneous side. The Daimyo must have done _something_, something big, something more heinous than strangling a son and burning a father alive…

And Minato wants to know just what that something was.

So when the Sandaime tells him and Kushina of the Fire Daimyo's intent to make a diplomatic trip to the Seven Lands and assigns them both as guards, the blond jounin readily accepts the mission. 

* * *

**Meanings:**

'Shinichi' – true first son. I chose this name for ninja!Jaime as it refers to how Tywin only acknowledges Jaime to be his heir despite the latter being in the Kingsguard (Daimyo's Guard?) and all

'Kawashiro' – a surname that uses the Japanese words for 'river' and 'castle'. Lannister - Lancaster (War of the Roses) and 'Lancaster' itself came from combining the names of a river and a fort together

'Tori' – bird. 'Cersei' is derived from the Greek name 'Circe' which means bird. I could not find any satisfactory Japanese names more like the mythical Circe so I took the literal meaning

'Gushiken' – Japanese surname meaning strong-willed which I find fitting for 'Stark' (meaning unyielding)


End file.
